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Edge #304 - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild special

P

phanphare

Banned
Snake Man Stage On Loop said:
I'm not sure this is the best analogy. After getting the hang of the controls, I was able to draw the shapes in W101 with a 100% success rate.

No matter how much I played Skyward Sword, or how comfortable I came to feel using the motion controls, there were many, many instances of movement inputs not registering properly, and I'm far from alone on this one.
Click to expand...

see my other posts, I wasn't saying W101's controls were inaccurate I was saying that based on my time with W101 going beyond simple shapes with the right analog wouldn't be ideal.
 
W

What The Forest Taught Me

Member
VistraNorrez said:
They were, but it's far more intuitive to swing that way then use the analog that way. You'd have to move the analog to the correct direction and quickly move it to the opposite side. Workable, but not ideal. I'm not sure you would mimic stabbing other than a button press. And I can't remember if twisting is necessary anywhere.

There is the net in the game. It maps directly to your movements and you don't have to swing it to catch bugs, you can be really gentle with it.It's one of my favorite things to do in SS. And I use a twist motion very oftem. Would not be nearly as satisfying with analog.

With that said, I fully expect a HD remaster with a traditional control option.

Edit: I realized that by mapping to Analog would also mean no camera control or a would need a toggle. Now SS doesn't have camera control outside of the target action (or first person perspective), but I think a benefit of dual analog would be camera control. In fact I hope any potential remaster would feature them.
Click to expand...

This aspect of the motion controls worked wonderfully.
 
D

dampflokfreund

Banned
So did the EDGE guy played through the whole game? Because

it says the dungeons are in the 4 Devine Beasts and then you have to go to Hyrule Castle to fight Ganon.

I mean, this can't be it? I expected this much, but really... That's it?

Hmmm.
 
A

ASilentProtagonist

Member
dampflokfreund said:
So did the EDGE guy played through the whole game? Because

it says the dungeons are in the 4 Devine Beasts and then you have to go to Hyrule Castle to fight Ganon.

I mean, this can't be it? I expected this much, but really... That's it?

Hmmm.
Click to expand...

You expected more? Considering how loaded the game is with content in the open world, I think
less dungeons
were a given. Windwaker is in my top 5 favourite games of all time, and it has just
2 more dungeons than this one.
 
C

ckaneo

Member
dampflokfreund said:
So did the EDGE guy played through the whole game? Because

it says the dungeons are in the 4 Devine Beasts and then you have to go to Hyrule Castle to fight Ganon.

I mean, this can't be it? I expected this much, but really... That's it?

Hmmm.
Click to expand...

This game is too big for people to be saying that's it lol
 
M

MiamiWesker

Member
TheDinoman said:
To be fair, that was before games like Metal Gear Solid 4 and GTA 4 which both were showered in perfect scores by critics but then seemingly got the backlash of the century later.
Click to expand...

Backlash by certain people. I don't care for GTA4 but MGS4 is a masterpiece. Won gaf GOTY TWICE and it would win again if you want to try it again. It's a loved game, it's deserving of a 10/10. Enough with this notion that MGS4 is bad. The people that hate it are just extra loud.

Not everyone is going to agree with games.
 
B

Boy Wander

Member
Honorio said:
Hey now that we are very happy with the score, what about this featured interview huh?
Click to expand...

Skimmed it - not a huge amount of info but I found this very interesting:

EDGE said:
The decision to develop and release the game on Switch too was taken in Spring 2016.
Click to expand...

So basically they had max 1 year to get the Switch version done.
 
D

dampflokfreund

Banned
ASilentProtagonist said:
You expected more? Considering how loaded the game is with content in the open world, I think
less dungeons
were a given. Windwaker is in my top 5 favourite games of all time, and it has just
2 more dungeons than this one.
Click to expand...

The main difference here is that Wind Waker's dungeons had all unique themings while all the
Shiekah Mechs
are themed around the
same mechanical Shiekah theme
. Also Wind Waker
had more dungeons than just 4 so I don't think the comparison is valid
 
Flintty

Flintty

Member
10/10 - amazing.

I haven't bought Edge in years. I'll have an attempt at hunting down a copy of this one - no idea who sells them near me these days.
 
C

ckaneo

Member
dampflokfreund said:
The main difference here is that Wind Waker's dungeons had all unique themings while all the
Shiekah Mechs
are themed around the same mechanical Shiekah theme. Also Wind Waker
had more dungeons than just 4 so I don't think the comparison is valid
Click to expand...

I could be wrong but im pretty sure the
mechanical beast all have different themes as well, all tech based, but also elemental
 
U

UncleSporky

Member
dampflokfreund said:
The main difference here is that Wind Waker's dungeons had all unique themings while all the
Shiekah Mechs
are themed around the
same mechanical Shiekah theme
. Also Wind Waker
had more dungeons than just 4 so I don't think the comparison is valid
Click to expand...

He already addressed your second spoiler.

I dunno I think 100 mini-dungeons more than makes up for it? like even if every one of those dungeons was one single room, one single puzzle, that's probably still more content than every past Zelda game.
 
M

Mihael Mello Keehl

Banned
Boy Wander said:
Good God the conclusion of EDGEs review:

" The result, for all the longevity of its series and the familiarity of the open world genre, is a game that evokes feelings we haven't felt for 20 years. Not since Ocarina of Time have we set foot in a world that feels so mind-bogglingly vast and unerringly magical, that proves so relentlessly intriguing. Plenty of games promise to let us go anywhere and do anything. Few, if any, ever deliver so irresistibly. 19 years on Ocarina is still held up as the high water mark of gamings best loved and greatest series. Now it may have to settle for second place".
Click to expand...
This is an incredible quote. The fact that Zelda can only dethrone Zelda speaks for itself. These games are literally the definition of video games.
 
R

RK9039

Member
MiamiWesker said:
Backlash by certain people. I don't care for GTA4 but MGS4 is a masterpiece. Won gaf GOTY TWICE and it would win again if you want to try it again. It's a loved game, it's deserving of a 10/10. Enough with this notion that MGS4 is bad. The people that hate it are just extra loud.

Not everyone is going to agree with games.
Click to expand...

Agreed, it's at least better than TPP.
 
S

ScaryShark

Banned
Midas said:
One thing's for sure; attach ratio for Zelda will be pretty high.
Click to expand...
I wonder what non pack-in game has the highest attach rate for a console at launch. SM64?
GregLombardi said:
Is there any easy way to get a physical copy of that issue in the United States btw?
Click to expand...
I asked if it's at B&N but got no response. I don't know where else to buy a physical magazine these days besides a grocery store or airport and I highly doubt the former would carry an exported copy of a gaming magazine.
 
D

dampflokfreund

Banned
UncleSporky said:
He already addressed your second spoiler.

I dunno I think 100 mini-dungeons more than makes up for it? like even if every one of those dungeons was one single room, one single puzzle, that's probably still more content than every past Zelda game.
Click to expand...

That's true but we have seen the inside of two beasts already
(Camel and Bird)
and to be honest, they look pretty similar. Also logical reasoning.

Well the great thing about the Zelda dungeons is that they are blended very well into the enviroment and are themed differently, so this is a key aspect that is missing with the shrines so I don't see how 100 shrines are going to replace dungeons for many people.
 
The Hermit

The Hermit

Member
Blobbers said:
I'm getting Xenoblade vibes, in that BotW might end up being one of those games that are just a magical experience from start to finish. I remember exploring Colony 9 to that amazing theme, finding out you can go anywhere and encountering all sorts of weird and high level monsters. So much time spent fucking around and soaking in the magic. And that's just the starting area. Then you arrive at Gaur Plains and the game blows your socks off all over again, and you meet a few great characters. And then you get to Eryth Sea and later on Frontier Village and you can't help but marvel at the craft of game making. These people are artists.
Sometimes a game grabs you and doesn't let go. And sometimes a game grabs you and you don't want it to let go, ever. You wanna stay nestled in the hand.
Click to expand...

You do know that Monolith helped with the development of Breath of the Wild right?

I am getting the same vibe too... I can't fucking wait.
 
F

FloweryMarston

Member
dampflokfreund said:
That's true but we have seen the inside of two beasts already
(Camel and Bird)
and to be honest, they look pretty similar. Also logical reasoning.

Well the great thing about the Zelda dungeons is that they are blended very well into the enviroment and are themed differently, so this is a key aspect that is missing with the shrines so I don't see how 100 shrines are going to replace dungeons for many people.
Click to expand...

The divine beasts also have effects on the environment around, and there seems to be a rather big buildup to them than just the dungeon itself.
 
rackham

rackham

Banned
Kind of hate hyperbolic reviews like this. Some of those quotes being opinions and being written as scripture is pretty cringey imo
 
R

robotrock

Banned
Ein Bear said:
Previous Edge 10s for comparison:

Super Mario 64
Gran Turismo
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Halo: Combat Evolved
Half-Life 2
Halo 3
The Orange Box
Super Mario Galaxy
Grand Theft Auto IV
LittleBigPlanet
Bayonetta
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Rock Band 3
The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
The Last of Us
Grand Theft Auto V
Bayonetta 2
Bloodborne
Click to expand...
I love edge
 
E

Evil's Bane

Member
dampflokfreund said:
So did the EDGE guy played through the whole game? Because

it says the dungeons are in the 4 Devine Beasts and then you have to go to Hyrule Castle to fight Ganon.

I mean, this can't be it? I expected this much, but really... That's it?

Hmmm.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what I expected to be honest.
 
R

Realeza

Banned
rackham said:
Kind of hate hyperbolic reviews like this. Some of those quotes being opinions and being written as scripture is pretty cringey imo
Click to expand...

How would you conclude the review to a game that has the potential to be the greatest of all time? Go ahead.
 
D

dampflokfreund

Banned
Honorio said:
The divine beasts also have effects on the environment around, and there seems to be a rather big buildup to them than just the dungeon itself.
Click to expand...

Yes, that sounds pretty cool! Can't wait to see how they have done that.


Evil's Bane said:
That's exactly what I expected to be honest.
Click to expand...

I know, but isn't Zelda about... well topping our expectations? I mean nobody in the 90s could have imagined the twists with Ocarina of Time/ ALTTP
 
L

LordKano

Member
Review of the 20 minutes I've played during a hands-on event earlier today :
I couldn't kill the old man, even with arrows and fire. 2/10.
 
B

Boy Wander

Member
rackham said:
Kind of hate hyperbolic reviews like this. Some of those quotes being opinions and being written as scripture is pretty cringey imo
Click to expand...

EDGE reviews aren't often hyperbolic, hence why 10s are given out rarely. Not sure what you mean about being written as scripture? They're direct quotes - all reviews are opinion pieces so I'm not sure how this is any different from quoting any other review except for the fact that they happened to love the game. Shall I counterbalance this with some quotes from average or shitty game reviews?
 
O

Octavianus

Banned
rackham said:
Kind of hate hyperbolic reviews like this. Some of those quotes being opinions and being written as scripture is pretty cringey imo
Click to expand...

Yeah, they should start and end every sentence with "in my opinion" because how else am I to know that these are just some dudes opinions? Other than the fact that that's what reviews are for I mean.
 
rackham

rackham

Banned
Well when you say things like Gaming's greatest most beloved series etc. you're not really writing it as opinion.

Just saying I dislike reviews that gush with that kind of hyperbole over any game
 
M

MoonFrog

Member
QuixoticNeutral said:
I sometimes think I'm the only one in the position of earnestly loving every 3D Zelda since OoT, even if some of them (maybe all of them) lack something that I admired about its siblings. But the 'cycle' and the infighting are unavoidable consequences of a series that has a few well-defined reference points for what is idealized in the community history (specifically, LttP and OoT) alongside an impulse to do something a little different and new in every game.

A 10 for Skyward Sword holds up in its own way when you realize that six years later, it's still the only game inextricably designed around motion controls—i.e. you can't really have a standard-control SS because that undermines concepts fundamental to every corner of the game—that stands tall as a full and complete adventure. To this day, it has no competition in its category. And even if games like Arms and the superior sensitivity of the Joy-Con herald a Super Nintendo era for motion controls, I don't see Nintendo gambling on an SS-like project themselves with any of their core properties, except for the HD/Joy-Con remaster we all expect. (A potential SS HD could very well be a more robust Joy-Con showcase than any other game in the same way that Wind Waker HD was arguably the finest outing for the Wii U GamePad.)

In any case, it does seem like BotW has the potential to be a unifying series landmark, because no matter what kind of baggage players are bringing in with them, regardless of their ideal vision of what Zelda ought to be, it looks as though BotW will do something for them. The pre-release hype would have us believe that it's the spiritual sequel to every game in some small way. Even Majora's Mask. Maybe even Zelda II, though I haven't heard anybody say so just yet. I'm here for Wind Waker 2, myself.

Nevertheless, I think people are right to exercise caution. Trust in the enthusiast media is as low as it has ever been, much of it owing to the chasm between the playing habits of dedicated fans (of any series) and reviewers who are jacks of all trades and masters of none, and are perhaps structurally incapable of speaking to advanced or late-game issues that may arise. Sometimes this leads to scores that overshoot, other times to scores that undershoot. But it's useful to remind ourselves that past the 20-hour horizon where reviewers playing in a rush are already forming their impressions into quips and decimal points, regardless of how much lies ahead of them, anything can happen. We don't know, for instance, if the wonder of BotW is trivialized by fast travel (the way the Skells of Xenoblade X or flying mounts of WoW shrank their respective worlds) or if its itemization system flattens the late-game progression into a plateau. We don't know if there will be something relatively tame but controversial anyway like TWW's Triforce hunt. We just don't know.
Click to expand...

As to the first bolded: You're not, just so you know. I say this a lot on GAF, but OoT and SS are my 1, 2 as far as 3D games go, but 3,4,5 between MM, TP, WW is incredibly hard for me to figure because I like them for different and competing reasons and dislike different things about them. It comes down to how I am feeling when I make list. But I like all of them a lot.

As to the second bolded: It holds up because it is a 10 or a 9.5+ game, which it is reasonable to assume would get some 10s :p.

As to the third bolded: I'm not sure. I'm thinking about SS, whose design seems to be the starting point for BotW as its antithesis. My hope is that the openworld has an unusually high degree of level design for an open-world, which I think is a possibility, given footage and previews. In that sense, it could follow from one of the core positives that "compactness" had on SS's design over its predecessors. That the world of BotW is a dungeon, in the sense that it should have that sort of dedication to level design, is a SS idea.

But it is not going to follow, by all accounts, on the very tight puzzle and gadget gameplay that reached its peak in TP and SS. Instead, they are introducing freedom into the puzzles and reducing the impact of new gadgets, to accommodate an open world, non-linear game. And that open world, non-linear game is very much not Skyward Sword 2. To varying degrees I could see it as the sequel to any other Zelda, but not SS.

And that is precisely why I have some concern as to how I'll take to it. I play Zelda for the building gameplay of the building set of gadgets and how they interact with a tightly designed world of puzzles, traversal problems, and monsters. The evolution of 3D Zelda was very much towards the tastes of someone like me. Whenever they talk about BotW, they say things that scare me and it is very much a game I'm hoping I love despite it not being what I wanted from Zelda.

The art, the characters, the towns, etc. have me hyped. The open-world/survival gameplay demonstrated strikes me as often neat but not squarely what I'd want. I'm going to have to get the game into my own hands and be won over that no, me being hyped because it is a new beautiful Zelda is not me setting myself up for disappointment.

As to the fourth bolded: Yes. Reviews have little meaning to me as I'm a long-time gamer who comes to his own critical conclusions that often speak to facets and intricacies of the game design that reviewers don't even speak to in reviews. Reviews generally come down to: it was good or bad, it flowed well or didn't, I liked graphics/story/sound/characters or didn't, it did or did not have technical flaws, it kept me entertained and coming back, or didn't. They don't usually actually go into the quality of the game design. Really, as someone who used to read reviews, the number says about as much as the text 9 times out of 10 and they tend to be only useful, imo, taken in quantity as a general gauge on the general quality of the game. They don't really strike at the specific quality all too often.

And I don't really think I'd want them too either :p. They'd spoil too much and prejudice too much, if they did.
 
P

phanphare

Banned
rackham said:
Well when you say things like Gaming's greatest most beloved series etc. you're not really writing it as opinion.

Just saying I dislike reviews that gush with that kind of hyperbole over any game
Click to expand...

is there any contention with that tho? The Legend of Zelda is one of gaming's oldest and most revered franchises. it has set many standards over the course of its existence and has many games under its belt that are seen as all time classics.
 
L

LotusHD

Banned
rackham said:
Well when you say things like Gaming's greatest most beloved series etc. you're not really writing it as opinion.

Just saying I dislike reviews that gush with that kind of hyperbole over any game
Click to expand...

Is...Zelda not one of the most beloved series?
 
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